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Tag: ambassadors

  • Nigerian First Lady, SHOM Partner for Children’s Creative Education

    Nigerian First Lady, SHOM Partner for Children’s Creative Education

    The SHOM Charity Gala 2025, hosted by the Nigerian First Lady, HE Senator Oluremi Tinubu,  and the Spouses of Heads of Mission (SHOM) Abuja, was held on Wednesday, 21 May, at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, in support of the Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative, a non-profit that leverages arts, storytelling, and community engagement to improve learning outcomes for children in underserved communities in Nigeria.

    The gala brought together more than 350 guests, including the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, HE Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who delivered the keynote address, alongside Honourable Ministers, Governors, Ambassadors, and senior representatives from the private and development sectors.

    With strong support from SHOM and the diplomatic community, the evening underscored a shared belief in the power of creativity in transforming education in a way that is inclusive, accessible, and rooted in local realities. Funds raised will help Five Cowries expand its impact across Nigeria, building on its track record of reaching over 250,000 learners through initiatives such as Mu Shuka Iri, Zinariya, and the Aunties Programme.

    In her address, the First Lady highlighted the alignment between Five Cowries’ community-driven model and Nigeria’s national development priorities under the Renewed Hope Agenda. She said: “By supporting the Five Cowries initiative, we are reiterating our commitment to promoting education and fostering inclusive development across our local communities, dignity, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda and our shared commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals.”

    Five Cowries CEO, Polly Alakija, expressed gratitude for the support shown by SHOM, the First Lady, and all event partners: “We are honoured by SHOM’s commitment and deeply grateful for Her Excellency’s recognition of our work. This evening is a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when global and local actors come together to drive inclusive education, creativity, and restore agency to communities. With this support, we are better placed to deepen our impact and expand to more Local Government Areas across Nigeria.”

    The SHOM Charity Gala 2025 served as a powerful platform for cross-cultural partnership and reaffirmed the role of arts-based education in delivering inclusive, community-driven solutions to improving learning outcomes in Nigeria.

  • Teach For Nigeria Inducts Its 6th Cohort of Teaching Fellows

    Teach For Nigeria Inducts Its 6th Cohort of Teaching Fellows

    …trains 319 Fellows to teach in underserved schools

    Teach For Nigeria (TFN), a non-profit organization that is developing leaders to ensure that children in under-served communities can fulfil their potential regardless of their socio-economic background. This year, the Teach for Nigeria Fellows went through a five-week hybrid Training Institute which kicked off virtually on the 31st of July 2022. A two-week residential training at Greensprings School, Lekki Campus, Lagos, followed running from 1st August – 16th August 2022.  

    The Teach For Nigeria Fellowship is a leadership development program that equips Fellows with teaching and leadership skills to effect change in their classrooms and beyond. Every year, Teach For Nigeria recruits promising graduates, engages them through an intensive Pre-Service Training Institute, and then places them in under-served schools where they make a remarkable impact and contribute immensely to changing the trajectory of their learners.

    The guest speaker at the event, Director, Enterprise Development Center of the Pan Atlantic University, Dr. Peter Bamkole, reminded the Fellows that they were on a mission. “When you do what you do with your whole heart,and you can do it for free and you’re still happy, that is not work, that’s a mission,” he said. In addition, Dr. Peter stated that the Fellows were the agents of change who would drive the needed change in the educational sector.

    Blessing Adeyemi, one of the Fellows, delivered a valedictory speech on behalf of the Fellows. In her remarks, she noted  “ we have not just been taught the art of teaching, but there’s been a transference of the heart of collective leadership to a shared vision.

    The Fellows were inducted formally into the Fellowship through a commitment pledge/oath led by the CEO of Teach For Nigeria, Folawe Omikunle. She encouraged Fellows to fully honour this promise that they have made to that one Nigerian child as they enter the classrooms.

    Present at the event was the Executive Chairman, Ogun State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr. Femi Majekodunmi, who was represented by the Board Secretary, SUBEB, Mr. Wasiu Kuye. The Honourable Commissioner of Education, Lagos State, Folashade Adefisayo, represented by Dr. Olufunke Oyetola, Tutor General/Permanent Secretary (TGPS), Education District 3 was also in attendance.

    In her goodwill message, the Honourable Commissioner of Education, Lagos State, Folashade Adefisayo, represented by Dr. Olufunke Oyetola, Tutor General/Permanent Secretary (TGPS), Education District 3 charged the Fellows to be change agents. “As you go out today, I want to encourage you to be good ambassadors, be an agent of change because education will take Nigeria to a greater level” She said.

    “You have come, you have seen and you have reconquered. Effecting change, requires time and lasting efforts. You are set for a new journey, new experience, in a new environment which will inform a major part of your decision in life now and beyond the fellowship”  This was the goodwill message from the Executive Chairman, Ogun State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr. Femi Majekodunmi, represented by the Board Secretary, SUBEB, Mr. Wasiu Kuye.

  • Feature: Visit Prince Charles on the Paltry British Investment in Nigeria

    Feature: Visit Prince Charles on the Paltry British Investment in Nigeria

    by Ayo Akinfe

    I would have loved it if all these recent meetings of Nigerian leaders in London had included visiting Prince Charles to press him on the serious matter of inadequate British investment in the Nigerian economy

    [1] A lot of people may not be aware of it but the British royal family has been trying to re-brand itself of late, positioning its members as investment ambassadors

    [2] Lead by the heir to the throne Prince Charles, the British royals not only seek to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into Britain but they also push British investment into foreign markets. Prince Andrew played this role well in the past and now, Prince William is serving in that capacity too

    [3] Over the last week, the Who is Who in Nigeria have all been in London, holding meeting after meeting. Just imagine if a delegation made up of Obasanjo, Atiku, Tinubu, Obi, Wike, Ortom, Makinde, Fintiri, Ikpeazu, etc, had all visited Clarence House together to make the case for increased British investment in Nigeria

    [4] For starters, Britain is a country well renown for its expertise in several sectors including tunnelling, coal mining and steel production for instance. How many people know that the man known as the world’s father of tunnelling was a British engineer named John Norton-Griffiths? During World War One, he was the man who came up with the idea of digging tunnels beneath the German trenches, allowing the allied powers to get behind their lines and subsequently win the war.

    [5] After the war, Mr. Norton-Griffith was awarded contracts to carry out major engineering projects in Africa and South America. These included work on the first 197km of the Benguela Railway in Angola between 1903 and 1908. His construction firm also took on a contract to carry out the heightening of Egypt’s Aswan Low Dam. His pioneering work was what led to the construction of the London Underground. His methods are still being used to this very day as the UK expands the network to build the Crossrail sector of London Underground. Lagos in particular desperately needs such skills as a city of 12m simply cannot survive without an urban underground network

    [6] In the area of coal mining too, Nigeria could benefit from British expertise. Just imagine what British coal miners could do if taken to Enugu to revive that coal mine

    [7] Do you know that Sheffield was at one time renowned as the European steel capital? Yet, we have the Ajaokuta, Aladja and Katsina steel mills rotting away and we watch on helplessly

    [8] Britain created Nigeria and left her sitting on a keg of gunpowder. As far as I am concerned, the British have to take responsibility for a lot of the problems they created. I cannot believe that our leaders visited London in this number and did not fight for Nigeria

    [9] I believe they should have visited Clarence House and Downing Street and given Britain a minimum annual investment figure Nigeria requires each year

    [10] We have poverty, restlessness and violence in our land because of a lack of industrialisation and job creation. Britain should be obliged to address this by investing at least £1bn a year in Nigeria. Such investment should be tax deductible with the British treasury underwriting such outgoings to encourage it!